Years ago, when I worked for Rodale Inc., I was a proud meat
eater surrounded by vegetarians who continually tried to convert me to their
way of eating.

There I would sit, spouting off my usual rhetoric, “If God
didn’t want us to eat meat, he wouldn’t have made our teeth so sharp or given
us an appendix.” My friends would then tell me that meat eating led to global
warming, and they would encourage me to read books like Frances Moore’s Diet for a Small Planet and John Robbins’
Diet for a New America.

“Read either one of those books and you will never eat meat
again,” I was told.

Years went by. I eventually became a Buddhist and stopped
eating meat as part of my promise to “do no harm.”

I didn’t, however, read Diet
for a New America until recently when the book was reissued and the
publisher happened to send me a review copy.

My friends were right. Had I read this book years ago, I
would have instantly given up meat eating. It’s that disturbing. Even if you are
someone with a cold heart and a hankering for bacon, the descriptions of what
happens on a factory farm will put a bad taste in your mouth. The current way
we mass produce animal products is both cruel and disgusting.

As I read the book, however, I couldn’t help but think of
several of my neighbors in Emmaus who keep chickens in their backyards. It seems
like a wholesome practice, right? The chickens are loved like household pets,
and they give back in the form of eggs.

Robbins is a vegan. He doesn’t even consume ice cream—the
very product that made his family (the Robbins of Baskin Robbins) famous.

I couldn’t help but wonder if he would eat an egg if it came
from someone’s beloved suburban backyard chicken.

So I asked him.

This is how the conversation went.

Me: Backyard hens are all the rage right now. I’m even
thinking of getting some. What do you think?

Robbins: If you want to eat eggs, that’s the best way to do
it because the commercial egg production system is geared toward procedures and
methods that are extremely cruel to birds and also very unhealthy. They keep
the birds under fluorescent light 24 hours a day. Those birds are miserable
creatures. I’m convinced that if every American saw what takes place on a
factory farm, they would find it deplorable.

Me: But people can buy cage free eggs. Those don’t come from
miserable birds, do they?

Robbins: Very often cage free eggs are hardly any better.
There are no inspections by a third party to ensure that the birds really do
have space. I’ve seen a lot of lying about it. Many of those birds are raised
in warehouses where the stocking densities are still very high. They are not
technically in a cage, but they still never get outdoors.

Me: But if you are raising them in your backyard, you know
the birds are being treated with love, right?

Robbins: Yes, that’s the best way, but hens live for eight
or nine years and only lay eggs for a few of those years. If you don’t plan to
consume the hen, then you end up with birds that are not laying much or at all
for some time before they die a natural death. You have limited space. It
creates a conundrum.

Me: I suppose they become much like a pet, though.

Robbins: If you want to do this in the most humane way
possible, you have to think about where you are getting your hens. Commercial
breeders separate chicks when they are born. They keep the hens to sell.The males
can’t lay eggs and they are not good meat birds, either, so the hackeries send them straight through a gmeat grinder because there’s no use for them.

Me: Ew.

Robbins: If you buy your chicks from a hatchery, you are
supporting that practice. I appreciate people trying to grow their own food and trying
to treat animals in a more humane way, but I also recognize that these are the
problems.

Backyard chickens have pluses and minuses, these negs are rarely discussed:

Cute male chicks become nasty, noisy roosters.
Even if you buy sex sorted chicks, you'll get a rooster in a dozen.
Hens can be noisy, including clucking loudy at 5 am on a Saturday morning, no reason, then again at 6:15 and 6:50 am.
You're child may lovingly hold them but eventually the bird will peck the kid on the face.
If they're loose they will leave poop on your doorstep and car.
Some breed and individuals are nicer than others but hens don't seek human interaction if it doesnt involve food. Your child isn't going to have a loyal hen friend.
Some will wander 500 feet to the neighbor's garden abd flower beds and poop there too.
Poultry feed is expensive and when you go back for more, the price has jumped a dollar.
Some birds can scale a five foot high fence or figure how to jump up on tree branches or pen roof to escape.
Hens can live a dozen years and not lay an egg for the last six.
There are lots of predators out there including your neighbor's otherwise nice dog. The badass birds may even turn on one hen and kill it.
Do not pass out unconscious among hens or you will find your face pecked off. They have no loyalty.

They have benefits, and they are handsome animals (even the usual run birds) but when people with pets face the negatives, they abandon them or are otherwise are cruel and stupid.

So be smart before you commit.

Posted By: jo pa | Jan 20, 2013 4:06:51 PM

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ABOUT THE WRITERS

TIM DARRAGH has been reporting and editing the news for 30 years, most of it at The Morning Call. For much of that time, he's been doing award-winning investigative and in-depth reporting projects. Tim created the three-year-long Change of Heart project, and wrote a series on the state's fractured food inspection system that led to widespread improvements in food safety. Meantime, that novice jogger you see plodding along the streets around Bethlehem Township? That would be Tim.